The power to decide for yourself how a dispute may be resolved, rather than be dictated a decision by an arbitrator or a judge, is the most attractive thing about mediation, practitioners say.
Raymond Leung Hai-ming, founding president of the Hong Kong Mediation Centre and general editor of the new Hong Kong Mediation Handbook, says the key advantage of the process is that it is the parties who shape the mediated agreement that settles their dispute.
'In court, you can't even stand up and speak for yourself unless you are cross-examined. In mediation, we control the process, but you decide the result,' Leung says.
Former Law Society president Lester Huang, a member of the Secretary for Justice's Working Group on Mediation, says some liken mediation to arbitration, but in fact the two processes are very different.
'In arbitration, you still have a process of two sides making submissions, and the arbitrator, like a judge, making the decision. In mediation, the mediator dictates the process but leaves it to the parties to generate the outcome,' he says.
Leung has practised as a mediator for over 15 years. Individual mediators have their own methods, but he likes to start the process by requiring each party to submit a one- or two-page summary of the issues in dispute.
